'Push poll' hits Longmont council races

By Scott Rochat Longmont Times-Call

Posted:
10/18/2013 08:13:25 PM MDT

Updated:
10/18/2013 08:13:49 PM MDT

LONGMONT -- A telephone "push poll" has begun to make the rounds in the Longmont at-large City Council and mayoral races, describing at least three of the five at-large candidates as financially inexperienced and suggesting Mayor Dennis Coombs cast a corrupt vote.

A push poll is a poll that doesn't just gather opinion but attempts to guide it, with the wording of the questions encouraging a respondent toward or away from a particular choice. In this case, the robo-call asks residents whether they support Coombs or challenger Bryan Baum in the mayoral race. Those who choose Coombs are asked if they would still support him if they knew he cast a council vote that benefited his business.

"Which is a crock," said Coombs, who said he'd heard about the call from several supporters. "I voted for the Roosevelt Park Apartments (located near the Pump House, which Coombs co-owns), but it's going to have a brewpub in direct competition with me."

Baum's wife, Stephanie, said neither she nor he knew the details of the survey. She said her husband had been undergoing cancer treatment all week; she had gotten two calls on her cell phone that might have been caller ID'd as a poll, she said, but she hadn't been able to pick up in time.

In the at-large race, callers who chose Ron Gallegos, Polly Christensen or Trisa Baxter said they were then asked if they would still support their candidate if they knew they had "no experience with budgets."

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"The funny thing is ... I'm a financial consultant," said Gallegos. "I write business cases."

Richard Vick, owner of Richard's on 3rd, said he was called earlier in the week. The organizer of the poll was never identified, he said.

Incumbent Councilman Gabe Santos said Friday that he had heard about the survey, but hadn't yet received the call himself or knew anyone personally who had. The other incumbent in the race, Councilman Alex Sammoury, said he'd heard from a couple of residents about the poll, but hadn't heard what response choosing his own name would bring.

"I have never liked or participated in negative campaign activity," Sammoury said. "I truly wish that whomever is conducting the poll would stop because it serves no good purpose."

"I don't do that type of stuff, nor do I condone it," Santos said.

None of the candidates' campaign finance forms, released Tuesday, show a line item related to phone polling services. However, outside groups have taken a hand before. In the last council elections in 2011, for example, the conservative advocacy group American Tradition Partnership sent out a "candidate issue survey" on the local races; similar questions were asked that year in a robo-call phone survey from a phone number identified as belonging to "ATP Research."

Christensen said she suspected the current poll probably came from American Tradition Partnership or a similar national group, given whom it appeared to be targeting.

"They apparently have the money to target every Democrat in every race in every town across America," said Christensen. "Because it is cast as an innocent question, 'Would you still support (x) for council knowing he is the devil incarnate and ate three of his four children?', they apparently cannot be sued for slander. This is the corruption of our democracy at every level by big money."

City Council races are officially nonpartisan and candidates do not have to identify a party registration.

Gallegos said it probably was an outside organization, since the robo-call pronounced his name "Gah-Legos."

"Everyone in town knows how to say Guy-eggos," he said, chuckling. "I think it's just hilarious."

Christensen called this the second such poll in two weeks and accused it of being calculated to help Baum and the incumbents in the at-large race.

Another question in the mayoral poll asks if a voter would still support Coombs if they knew he voted to ban fracking. Longmont's citywide ban on hydraulic fracturing was a public referendum and not a City Council vote.

"I don't know how they'd know that unless they looked in the ballot box," Coombs joked.

Baxter said her son got the robo-call and that he was "surprised and a bit angry." She added that she wasn't all that bothered.

"In truth, if the other candidates want to say that I have never created a budget -- which I have -- or if I have 14 toes on my left foot -- I will never tell -- I really do not care," Baxter said. "If someone wants to know the truth, they will ask. This election is about helping, listening and working for the Longmont citizens."

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